Bishop undeterred despite second setback
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Dutch and Aust forensic investigators heading to the MH17 crash site have turned back for safety reasons.

Sky News

29 Jul 2014

News

International protocols ... members of the Dutch and Australian forensic investigating teams in Donetsk, before leaving for the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Picture: Bulent KilicSource: AFP

A TOTAL of 227 coffins have been returned to the Netherlands but authorities identifying the victims of MH17 say it is still too early to know how many of the 298 passengers have been recovered.

About 300 Australian officials, including 38 specialist disaster victim identification experts, are now on the ground in Europe and working on the MH17 probe.

The Australian Disaster Victim Identification team is led by the Australian Federal Police chief scientist, Dr Simon Walsh, and includes 19 DVI experts in the Netherlands and another 19 in the Ukraine, working to identify the remains of the passengers on board the Malaysian Airlines crash.

The DVI team includes experts from the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, who have worked on some of the most difficult and harrowing disasters in recent history.

Grim task ... a member the Australian forensic investigating team in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.Source: AFP

The harrowing task of identifying all the victims will take weeks and months, say experts.

Early estimates suggested that only about 200 of the 298 bodies had been recovered from the scene, in war-torn Eastern Ukraine and officials fear some may never be identified.

The DVI experts so far have identified one body – a Dutch male, whose family has been notified.

Detective Inspector Howard Way, a Disaster Victim Identification co-ordinator from the British police, who is working with the team in the Netherlands, said the process will be lengthy.

There are reports that teams at the crash site, near Donetsk, have seen more bodies recently which have now been lying in the sun and elements for 12 days.

On the move ... members of the Dutch forensic team prepare to leave for the crash site.Source: AFP

An Australian Federal Police official in Amsterdam who is also working on the identification says this will hamper the process of identification.

Det Insp Way says that he expects more identifications to be made in the coming weeks but warns it is going to a long, meticulous and slow process.

“It will be a process over the coming weeks and months. I think the identification will be very slow at first and then we hope that they will pick up pace as the operation progresses,” he said.

“This will take weeks and months. If it is rushed that’s when mistakes are made and we are not going to make any mistakes.”

Asked if more of the bodies could be identified within days, Det Insp Way said: “I think there will be identifications in the coming weeks certainly. It would be premature for me to say, it is certainly in the coming weeks, there will be identifications, I am confident of that.”

Difficult conditions ... pro-Russian militants block the road behind Dutch and Australian forensic teams on their way to the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Picture: Bulent KilicSource: AFP

Interpol protocols are being used and once a body is identified by primary identifiers, an identification commission is convened to verify the results.

The first commission hearing was last Friday, before a board of five people, when the Dutch national was formerly identified. His name has not been released.

Det Insp Way said the first case had been identified through one of the three primary identifiers – DNA, dental records or fingerprints – but he did not specifiy which of the three.

Det Insp Way said the commission includes a Dutch prosecutor “for transparency” and may be increased to seven members.

He said commissions would be convened whenever needed and there would be no delays in informing families of positive identifications. He expects about three commission hearings per week.

Five lines of DVI experts are currently working in the facilities at Hilversum base, which includes a temporary mortuary inside a military building.

The experts are recording clothing, property and personal effects, charting x-rays and teeth, taking fingerprints and recording markings and scars using protocols set by

Interpol.

If a body does have personal property it does not identify them immediately but does give investigators clues about identity. Det Insp Way said it made sense to identify the

easier cases first.

Australia has 38 DVI specialists working on MH17 – 19 in the Netherlands and 19 in the Ukraine.

Ceremonial ... a column of hearses proceeds from the Eindhoven air base to Hilversum. Picture: Vincent JanninckSource: AFP

An AFP official says the longer the bodies remain at the scene the harder it will be to identify them and that the DNA process becomes more difficult. And they concede that it is a possibility that not all remains will be identified or found because of the nature of the incident which brought MH17 down.

The official said that the fact the bodies were left in the open in the elements at the crash site for so many days before retrieval and proper storage can impact the ability to extract DNA.

The DVI team consists of about 200 specialists from all over the world who are following a set of international protocols used to identify bodies. Before the bodies are released to families the identification must be signed off by a Identification Commission set up to examine the identification process and ensure there are no mistakes.

Asked about how long the identification process would take, the official said: “There is no short cuts. We have the best people working as hard as they can but this is a tough job and it is going to be difficult ... and it will take time.”

“This is all about dignity, closure and the basic right to be identified and repatriated so the families can grieve ... that (set of values) cuts through all aspects of what we do.”

Teams of police from the nations whose citizens were on board MH17 have collected DNA, medical and dental records from the families and next of kin of the passengers and crew in a bid to help them identify the bodies. These can include hair from hairbrushes, or toothbrushes.

Primary and secondary identifiers are then used. Primary identifiers include fingerprints, DNA and dental records and secondary identifiers can include medical records, such as records of surgery and identifiers like scars, marks, tattoos and jewellery and personal belongings.

After the Bali bombings, in which 88 Australians were killed, it took between three weeks to four months for all the bodies to be identified and returned home.

In the Netherlands no-one is putting a time frame on how long the process will take. So far one victim, from the Netherlands, has been identified.

The 300 Australian officials now on the ground throughout Europe and working on Operation Bring Them Home, consists of Australian police, DVI specialists, Australian Defence Force members, air safety investigators and Foreign Affairs officials.

The DVI process consists of five phases — the scene and recovery phase, the mortuary phase, ante-mortem phase, reconciliation and debriefing phase.

But in this case, with bodies and remains and personal effects scattered over a large area of the eastern Ukraine wracked by a separatist battle and with experts unable to gain access to the site, the recovery phase has been compromised.

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